Archive for January, 2018

I have purchased these TWO pictures from the filming of The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men – the one immediately below – and the third one down showing Walt Disney talking to Richard Todd and Elton Hayes.

Quite honestly I am thrilled with them – or more so really with ONE of them.

That is the Studio scene BELOW at Denham Film Studios showing the filming towards the end of the Picture, in Robin Hood’s Camp – this is the original photograph and absolutely crystal clear whereas I have previously seen this one in a smaller less clear version.

I think this scene would be filmed at the end of July 1951 – and I have a feeling that I would be on holiday with my Mother and Dad and Brothers in St.Albans at that time – so as a small boy would have been passing the Denham Studios at the very moment this scene was filmed.

The other picture ABOVE: – with Walt Disney, Richard Todd and Elton Hayes, I have seen many times before.

Above and Below: Robin Hood’s Camp – Huge Studio Set at Denham

Hard to imagine that the Camp above is a Studio Set – on a scale that could only have been done at Denham at that time.

Above: Filming a Scene in the Camp – Richard Todd is seated at the Table and Ken Annakin the Film Director is standing just behind him and to the left.

A Woodland Scene Above with Allan A Dale – The Wonderful Elton Hayes

Above : Another picture from the making of the film. This time an Outdoor Film Set of Nottingham Square – and here Robin Hood and his Men plan to free a number of peasants being held captive. A Thrilling Scene.

Back again to the beautiful Lincolnshire village ofWoodhall Spa with its unique and very appealing cinema. Anyone who has not been to this village I say – Please go and take a look – and while there walk round to the Kinema In The Woods.

This Cinema is unique.

The pictures above are taken from a book on the Kinema which my son and his family bought for me for Christmas recently – it is available and gives a comprehensive historical perspective.

Above – The famous Petwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa – Home of the Dam Busters Officers Mess – which is still there virtually as it was.

Picture taken at the 40s Weekend 2017 – last Summer

Above – Main Street Woodhall Spa – the 40s Weekend 2017 – last summer

In the middle of Woodhall Spa – the 40s Weekend 2017 – last summer

At the same event – to add to the wonderful atmosphere – a lone Spitfire swoops overhead with the thrilling sound of the Merlin Engine.

Burt Lancaster at this point in his career, was at his swashbuckling peak having just see The Flame and The Arrow become a big international hit – film I saw it as a very young boy – and so did former Prime Minister John Major. In his Autobiography he refers to going to the Cinema often in those days in South London, where he was brought up, and remembering The Flame and The Arrow.

Sometimes films were re-released again after a few years as a Double Bill such as this action packed pairing. This was a good idea because it was not likely that you would see them again if they did not reappear at the cinema, and I , for one, like to watch some of them over again.

Television was in it’s early days then with only one channel BBC to watch and that came on at 4-30 pm and shut down at about 11 pm – and there were few films shown.

Not sure that I saw either of these at the cinemas though – in fact I am pretty sure I didn’t.

Burt Lancaster in The Crimson Pirate – made in England. and also above Eva Bartok in the film – she had what looked like a promising film career at this time – but after this film seemed to get bogged down in British Run-of-the-Mill films such as her next one Venetian Bird with Richard Todd

The Command was a 1954 release, so this Double Bill must have been later in the 50 s on a re-release I would expect.

Guy Madison starred in this one – Below a Signed Front of House Still from the Film – or as they call it in the USA a Film Lobby Card

One of the films Janet Munro did for Walt Disney was one that I have to admit, I cannot remember at all, but it gets very good revues The Horsemasters made in Surrey England in 1961. See Below :

A “good condition” VHS tape of The Horsemasters goes for about £ 120 – That’s not bad for a 1961 two-part episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color that was released theatrically as a motion picture in Europe. The popularity of The Horsemasters among video collectors has nothing to do with the quality of the film. It’s all about the cast.

The plot follows eight youths enrolled in an intensive training program at the Valleywood Riding School in England. Their goal is to become “Horsemasters,” which apparently requires that you know everything about caring for and riding horses. The students spend the first few weeks doing nothing but cleaning stables, grooming horses, and learning about them. Eventually, though, they do to get to ride and jump their steeds. The training program ends with a riding exam and a written test. Much of The Horsemasters unfolds like a documentary as we follow the kids during their daily routine. The first half, which was subtitled “Follow Your Heart” for TV, focuses on Dinah Wilcox (Annette Funicello). Her mother was a famous equestrian whose career was cut short after being thrown from her horse. As a result, Dinah has to overcome her fear of jumping.

The film’s second half, known on TV as “Tally Ho,” centres on first-time Valleywood instructor Janet Hale (Janet Munro). She struggles to gain the respect of her pupils while instilling discipline in them. She gets minimal advice from The Major (who owns the school): “People are like horses, Janet. If you don’t ride them, they’ll ride you.” It doesn’t help that there are romantic sparks between her and the handsome lad from Australia (John Fraser). The Horsemasters is an interesting and charming film I am told – and so I must try to acquire it as soon as I can.

Janet Munro appeared in four Disney films, the other three being Darby O’Gill and the Little People, Third Man on the Mountain, and Swiss Family Robinson. Although she frequently played tomboy roles, she could also turn on the sex appeal, as she showed in the excellent science fiction film The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961). She died from heart disease in 1972 at age 38.

Janet Munro married twice. In January 1956 she married Tony Wright, the marriage ended three years later in 1959. In 1963 she married former Avengers star Ian Hendry.

The couple had two children Sally Hendry and Corrie Hendry. From 1964 to 1968 she retired from acting to raise her two children. Ian and Janet divorced in 1971.

British actress Janet Munro dies at 38

British actress Janet Munro, aged 38, died on 6 December 1972 after becoming ill while having tea with her two children in her flat in Kentish Town, London. The children’s nannie, Elizabeth McGuiness, tried to revive her but she died on the way to hospital. Munro died from a heart attack caused by chronic ischaemic heart disease.

When she signed a Five Film contract with Walt Disney in the late 1950s she was in some great films Darby O Gill and The Little People, Third Man on the Mountain and Swiss Family Robinson come straight to mind – and they were films on a large scale that went worldwide

Janet Munro was born as Janet Neilson Horsburgh on 28 September 1934 in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. She was the daughter of the Scottish comedian Alex Munro and his wife, Phyllis Robertshaw. Janet’s mother, Phyllis died when she was eight and she was raised by Lilias, Alex Munro’s second wife.

Janet Munro – Above – One of My Favourite Actresses

Above: Janet Munro and Sean Connery in Darby O Gill and The Little People – one of My Favourite Films

After a brief career in the theatre she was spotted and given her first film role as Effie the waitress in “Small Hotel”(1957), followed by “The Trollenberg Terror” (1957) and a starring role with Andrew Ray in “The Young and the Guilty” (1958). She then did the Disney pictures. After her Disney contract she was given more dramatic roles in “Day The Earth Caught Fire” (1961), “Life for Ruth” (1962) and “Bitter Harvest” (1963). In 1958 Janet Munro was voted “TV actress of the year” and in 1960 she won a Golden Globe as “Most Promising Newcomer – Female” together with Tuesday Weld, Angie Dickinson and Stella Stevens.

Two failed marriages, two miscarriages, alcoholism, assorted medical problems, and depression… Munro collapsed and subsequently died on December 6th 1972 at the age of 38. She was cremated and interred at the Golders Green Crematorium.

More from the ITV series The Adventure of Robin Hood – with Richard Greene as Robin Hood – Below with Patricia Driscoll – Maid Marian I hadn’t realise that Patricia Driscoll has appeared in 1956 with Max Bygraves in the Colour film Charley Moon which at the time was well promoted but it is rarely shown these days – I haven’t seen it for years but remember how good it was. It was the following year that she took over from Bernadette O’Farrell as Maid Marian in this extremely popular Television show – and she made 36 episodes – she had also previously presented the Children’s Show Picture Book She was married for a lot of years to Duncan Lamont – an actor who cropped up on TV and in films all the time in the Fifties – and later. He died in 1978. Above: Patricia Driscoll with Max Bygraves.

Patricia Driscoll recounts getting the part as Maid Marion :-

“An unexpected telephone call from the Nettlefold Studios, at Walton-on-Thames, to the London mews flat of Pat Driscoll hoisted her to fame in the role of Maid Marian in TV’s ‘Robin Hood.’When the phone rang, Pat was doing a spot of gardening-if ‘gardening’ is the right word to use about tending window boxes outside a town flat!The odd thing was that she seldom saw TV. There was no room in her small home for a set, and she didn’t like badgering neighbours to look in at theirs.Like her predecessor in the part, Bernadette O’Farrell, Pat was born in Cork. When her mind was made up that acting was the life for her, her parents sent her to RADA. After that, she worked her way around the country with various repertory companies.

While with the Manchester Rep she met and married a dark Scot, Duncan Lamont. Duncan has also appeared in ‘Robin Hood’ from time to time. Their first home was in a London mews flat, where hammers, tacks, paint rollers and wallpapers made many demands on leisure time.

Pat’s first TV success came in 1953, in a show called ‘Whirligig.’ She also appeared in the film Charley Moon with Max Bygraves. Until the Maid Marian part came along, she was working in both ‘Listen With Mother’ and ‘Looking With Mother.’

Pat has been used to handling horses all her life, and had her own pony as a child and did a lot of show-jumping, in the modern manner. In fact, she was once a leading pony rider at the Olympia Horse Show. When she was eleven year old, Pat won a jumping competition at the Arundel Gymkhana.

This helped a great deal when she took on the role of Maid Marian-though she found she had to learn to ride side-saddle to conform to medieval custom. She took lessons from an expert to steer an elephant in the right direction in Charley Moon. ‘After that, riding side-saddle on a horse was child’s play,’ she’ll tell you.

Pat’s favourite hobby, when she has time for it, is salmon fishing. When she is filming, an alarm clock shatters her sleep at six-thirty in the morning. After this early start she is ‘on set,’ ready with her make-up completed, at the Nettlefold Studios by eight thirty.

She likes to tell about her own shame when she first began working there.‘Puzzled, I was, by the plaque over the entrance HEPWIX 1898, until someone told me it was a memorial to Cecil Hepworth (part of his own name coupled with that of a fiend). He was one of the pioneers of film making, who built the place in the back garden of his house by the Thames.’

The hooks on which Hepworth slung his film negative to dry are still there, an interesting link with the television films of today.”

The Above piece is actually taken from the www.disneysrobin.blogspot.com site, which we advise you to take a look at – it is superb and is totally focused on the wonderful Walt Disney film The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men with Richard Todd and Joan Rice – 1952.

Above: Max Bygraves with a very young Jane AsherRichard Greene having a chat on location with young Merrie Men !!! Richard chats to Don Chaffey Film Director – and Below that getting into his car – Not sure what sort of Car that is either ??

The TitfieldThunderbolt is a film loved by all cinemagoers and genuine film fans.

I count this as one of my favourite films

These pictures appeared in the Everybody’s Magazine dated 11 October 1952 with quite a long article on the film and its making. The pictures seem to have a pinkish tinted look although this film was in Technicolor and the Magazine itself has some very impressive bright colour advertisements. I have purchased a lot of these Magazines which are fascinating with quite a bit of film interest which no doubt will make its way onto this Films Of The Fifties Site.

A Scene from the Film Above

A Scene from the Film Above – the caption refers to the Scene above this one.

The Above Scene has two of the villains, Pearce and Crump, who have a Steam Roller which they make use of the attempt to wreck Titfield’s original train and so cause the villagers to be dependent on their Motor Coach.

The filming around the village on Monckton Combe ( Titfield) on the single track line from Camerton to Limpley Stoke took around eight weeks during which time three villages in all were used as Titfield.

Arthur Garrish ( 64 years old) who is pictured above – worked on this line for 18 years – through the War years – but the line had recently closed. This was because the line itself had served Camerton Colliery and it had just been closed as the coal seam had run out.

Arthur had seen the filming of The Ghost Train before the War again at Monckton Combe, so he knew what film making was all about.

Anthony Quayle and Dorothy Hyson married on a very hot summer day – on 3rd June 1947 – with around 60 guests present.

This was one of the great Love Stories of Filmland. Anthony Quayle had met Dorothy Hyson some eight years before, and was smitten with her from that moment. She, at that time, was married to the actor Robert Douglas, and he was married to Hermione Hannen – neither of them happily married.

Dorothy Hyson was known as one of the prettiest girls ever to grace the London Stage – and as such she was a considerable attraction – just look at the picture Above

She had appeared in films – We remember her in a leading role with the great George Formby in Spare a Copper in 1941. Above

However when she met and married Anthony Quayle she gave up acting to look after him and raise a family.

Anthony Quayle said of his wife at the time of their marriage ‘ The wanderings of Odysseus had lasted ten long years – mine only eight: but I had come to my Penelope at last.’ Then he added ‘ Without her I could have been nothing, done nothing; with her Love and help, our two lives joined together. I could lift the world up and carry it aloft’

Above – At their Home in 1952 Near Stratford on Avon with their Two Girls, Rosanna and Jennifer. They also had a son Christopher.

Above: Their Two Girls, Rosanna and Jennifer with Mother Dorothy Hyson – and how much like her is her daughter on the right of the picture. They also had a son Christopher – here with his Father.

Dorothy Hyson was a renowned hostess in London. On her retirement from acting, she said: “I always tried my best at being an actress – but when I met Anthony Quayle all I wanted to do was to be his wife and look after him. My acting didn’t matter anymore. He always came first for me”.

Before he left and went to live at San Ysidro close to Santa Barbara,Ronald Colman had lived at 1003 Summit Drive, in Beverley Hills

Above: Ronald Colman and his wife Benita Hulme at Home in Beverley Hills

Above: Ronald Colman and his wife Benita Hulme on Radio with their very popular show ‘The Halls of Ivy’

Above: Ronald Colman and his wife Benita Hulme on Radio Show ‘The Halls of Ivy’ in 1954. Benita looks to have an impish sense of humour here – something their daughter said – that she taught he father to be much more fun and less serious. They were very happy though.

I always remember the story that Barry Norman told on The Hollywood Greats programme some years ago – that when his wife announced that she was pregnant with their daughter – he was by then in his early fifties – his reaction was to go very quiet and then ask ‘What will Hollywood say’

Even then he was conscious of his image in Hollywood and film land.

When his daughter arrived though he became a very loving and doting father as , of course, he would

I was not familiar with this film at all – it was the announcement of the death of Dorothy Malone a few days ago that led me to read about her and this film cropped up.

Now I am familiar with the more recent Fast and Furious films which my son really likes – he has seen them all – and to be fair they have been extremely successful and very popular.

However this 1955 version did not regfister with me – either at the time or since – but I do remember another racing car picture at the same tine which was Johnny Dark with Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie – that was in colour and I remember seeing it at the time.

The Fast and the Furious is an interesting 1955 fast-cars crime thriller oddity has the good sense to keep it in the family, with a story by producer Roger Corman, direction by star John Ireland and co-script by actress Jean Howell (with Jerome Odlum).

John Ireland stars as innocent Frank Webster, on the run from the police after breaking out of jail, where he was wrongly put for murder. Frank is forced to abduct beautiful young Connie Adair (Dorothy Malone), who is driving a driving a fast sports car. They join a cross-border sports car race to try to make a break for Mexico. However, along the road, they fall in Love, and he sets out to show that he is innocent.

It should have been call The Cheap and the Cheerful because that is exactly what the film should be given its humble, fast filmed, low-budget ($66,000) status, but it is quite good, still quite watchable and entertaining. John Ireland and Dorothy Malone are quite good company.

It was shot in nine days by Floyd Crosby and is scored by Alexander Gerens.

It is notable as the first film released by the American Releasing Corporation, which became American International Pictures.

Director Roger Corman doubled as one of the race drivers and accidentally beat Ireland across the finishing line, resulting in a second take when Ireland won.

The film mixes stock footage of road races from the Southern California area in with new racing scenes filmed here. In Nine days filming they couldn’t afford to hang about and took advantage of anything they could.

Don’t forget the wonderful Steven Spielberg film Duel 1971 was made in 13 days ( they had planned 10 days )m and then edited in the next 10 days then shown on Television in the USA quickly after that – and that was – and is – a Cracker !!!